2019 may hatch a long!!!!!!

[MagpieDucks]

I’m pretty sure the remaining 3 eggs are dis this morning. So... final tally:

16 Silkie hatching eggs purchased and picked up in person
11 fertile
11 at lockdown
1 died hatching
3 dis
7 live cuties (3 white, 2 blue, 1 black or blue, 1 from an egg marked blue that I thought was splash but it is still just mostly a white/silver)

I have 7 more eggs due to hatch on Friday, so I’ll be back!

View attachment 1793604View attachment 1793606 View attachment 1793610

Are you sure those are white? They look Buff.

 

[TJChickens]

@TJChickens

yes, I do. Mostly porcelain right now. Some golden necked.

 

[Rockporters]

Are you sure those are white? They look Buff.

I thought that as well at first, but that is how all the “white” eggs hatched from this breeder. She has amazing whites, so hopefully the ones I keep will be as well.

 

[john_wrightson2003]

Ok, so my hatch that was due on June 11 was a complete fail, every one of the eggs were either "cooked" or hey still had detached air cells, even though I let em sit for about 5 days rotating them at least 3 times a day, and they were all still detached, so, hat was a waste of money, a lot of them were also not fertile...

 

[jas humbert]

@Rockporters, what a bunch of cuties. I'm jealous. I've got silkies in the bator as well and I just an hour ago saw my first pip. Not due until Friday officially.

Only the one chick with funky colored legs? That happens occasionally as well as extra toes. I've seen them darken up some but usually from pinky charcoal not from that yellow. Oh, well he' s just as cute and I'm sure he'll end up the pet of the litter. I just love silkies!

 

[jas humbert]

I'm so excited! Hatching never gets old. I just noticed my first tiny pip about an hour ago. 99.8 temp in my forced air bator- 66% humidity. I got these eggs shipped from Florida and had 10 viable eggs (and one marginal egg- its probably a late quitter but I can't be sure) going into lockdown. Hopefully I'll wake up in the morning to something exciting.

 

[Rockporters]

@Rockporters, what a bunch of cuties. I'm jealous. I've got silkies in the bator as well and I just an hour ago saw my first pip. Not due until Friday officially.

Only the one chick with funky colored legs? That happens occasionally as well as extra toes. I've seen them darken up some but usually from pinky charcoal not from that yellow. Oh, well he' s just as cute and I'm sure he'll end up the pet of the litter. I just love silkies!

Congrats on the pips, and good luck!! I have 7 more due to hatch tomorrow. Such fun! What colors are you expecting? (Or hoping for, rather )

One of the whites has darker feet than the other, but yes, he is the only one in the bunch with funky feet/legs. His legs have a black tint, so who knows, but I’d put money on him being a “him” lol.

 

[jas humbert]

I ordered eggs from Bobbi Porto, a big time silkie breeder in Florida. She told me she's "cut way down" to just over 200 silkies. I asked for an assortment of colors with some of her dark reds for sure. Two eggs pipped this morning. a "Ranger" egg (one of her dark red roos) and I can't read the name on the other egg without opening the bator. I think I've got white, blue, black, splash and partridge in there, plus I asked her to put in some from her experimental pens with creles and cuckoos. Hoping for some naked necks too. Anybody's guess what hatches. She has a nice Facebook page with lot of pictures and I've been drooling over what I hope to get. She told me she incubates at 55% humidity and raises it to 65% at hatch. I know it depends on where you are but Florida and Tennessee are both pretty humid. So I followed her directions and while several eggs didn't develop (shipping is hard on eggs) what did looks good now and air cells look just the right size and position. I'm hanging tough and not opening the bator but its in the garage/basement and its 70% humidity in that room. With the heat in the incubator, dry hatch would have been 35-40% when I ran it empty but I've kept it between 49-55% until lockdown as Bobbi suggested. Its running 65-66% humidity now. Here's hoping!

 

[john_wrightson2003]

I ordered eggs from Bobbi Porto, a big time silkie breeder in Florida. She told me she's "cut way down" to just over 200 silkies. I asked for an assortment of colors with some of her dark reds for sure. Two eggs pipped this morning. a "Ranger" egg (one of her dark red roos) and I can't read the name on the other egg without opening the bator. I think I've got white, blue, black, splash and partridge in there, plus I asked her to put in some from her experimental pens with creles and cuckoos. Hoping for some naked necks too. Anybody's guess what hatches. She has a nice Facebook page with lot of pictures and I've been drooling over what I hope to get. She told me she incubates at 55% humidity and raises it to 65% at hatch. I know it depends on where you are but Florida and Tennessee are both pretty humid. So I followed her directions and while several eggs didn't develop (shipping is hard on eggs) what did looks good now and air cells look just the right size and position. I'm hanging tough and not opening the bator but its in the garage/basement and its 70% humidity in that room. With the heat in the incubator, dry hatch would have been 35-40% when I ran it empty but I've kept it between 49-55% until lockdown as Bobbi suggested. Its running 65-66% humidity now. Here's hoping!

How do you order form her? her website's hard to navigate.

 

[jas humbert]

You are right, it could be clearer. Go to Indigo Egg website and how to purchase page. She has a section on shipped eggs. She's super nice but kind of casual and doing a lot of other things. If you text or email she will eventually answer you but maybe not the same day. I think she's worth the wait.

As you probably know, shipped eggs are risky. You may not even get a 50% hatch rate even if you are incubating correctly. I ordered from her once before about 2 years ago. I had not quite a dozen eggs developing and my wild cats knocked the incubator off the table and most of the eggs smashed. I hatched only one egg from that batch- a gorgeous partridge boy and I couldn't even keep him because I couldn't have roosters at the time. I see you've had some bad luck with your last hatch. Detached air cells are a fact of life with shipped eggs. I had a detached and some loose ones. Standard advice is don't turn them at all for the first few days but sometimes nothing helps. All of my detached and loose eggs in this batch did not develop at all. Don't assume eggs weren't fertile just because they didn't develop. (Most breeders would be insulted if you said half their eggs weren't fertile- much more accurate to say half didn't develop). Shipping is hard on eggs and they are often subtly damaged- not obviously cracked but too shook up to develop even if they were fertile. Practice getting your empty incubator stable with temp and humidity-figure out how much water and how often it has to be added to keep the stable humidity you want. Good luck!